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Grizzled. Conservative Sir John Gilmour, Minister of Agriculture and a fox-hunting man. succeeded orthodox Liberal Sir Herbert Samuel as Home Secretary.
Unorthodox Liberal Sir Godfrey Collins was given the unimoortant Secretaryship for Scotland, and other appointments last week had this net result:
Conservatives in the National Cabinet rose from 12 to 14 (counting Mr. Baldwin as two).
The Prime Minister's own so-called National Labor Party is now represented by only three ministers: himself; Viscount Sankey as Lord Chancellor, and J. H. ("Jim") Thomas, onetime engine-greaser, as Secretary for Dominions.
Since Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon and his unorthodox Liberals are scarcely to be distinguished from Conservatives, what really happened last week was that the "National Government" became an almost completely Conservative Government, much to the quiet satisfaction of His Majesty.
"Gentlemen, the King!" Last year, when Scot MacDonald's Laborite colleagues roundly disowned him, he called at Buckingham Palace, intending to resign (TIME, Aug. 31, 1931). Instead the Prime Minister was persuaded to go back to No. 10 Downing Street. There he obtained the resignations of his Labor ministers, proceeded to join forces with Stanley Baldwin, announced his "National Government" and won the most sweeping electoral victory in British history (TIME, Nov. 9). In that affair the role of His Majesty, though evident, was veiled. Last week George V was even more cautious.
While the actual Cabinet shifts were taking place, royal assent was sought by telegrams to Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands where, for once. His Majesty was kept so busy that he had to stop grouse shooting. When the last shift had been made George V and Queen Mary hurried to politically grousing London. Where the King's first act was to receive his Prime Minister. What, if any, change in British policy was to be expected?
First, the Ottawa tariff accords seemed certain of enactment by Parliament, precedent or no precedent.
Second, the very success of the Conservatives in upping tariffs seemed likely to make them more cautious about continuing to flout President Hoover's proposals for a general one-third arms cut.
Third, the French Press rejoiced, perhaps prematurely, that Britain's Cabinet had been revamped without shoving Sir John Simon, friend of France and Japan, out of his Foreign Secretaryship and into some such post as the Home Office. This development most Frenchmen had feared, most Britons had hoped for.
Throughout the United Kingdom, though Sir John Simon is acknowledged to be a great criminal and corporation lawyer, he is blamed for extreme clumsiness in antagonizing both the U. S. and Germany at the Geneva Arms Parley.
Monarch, Four Sons 6 Betty. Until he was 26, George Frederick Ernest Albert of Saxe-Coburg und Gotha had no idea that he would become King-Emperor. As the second son of the then Edward of Wales (later King Edward VIII; he supposed that his elder brother the Duke of Clarence was going to marry the present Queen Mary (to whom Clarence was engaged). As late as 1890, George was content to command H. M. S. Thrush (in U. S. waters), content with rare press mentions of himself as "The Sea Prince." perfectly content to go without a college education.